Single feature polymorphism detection using recombinant inbred line microarray expression data

The Affymetrix GeneChip microarray is currently providing a high-density and economical platform for discovery of genetic polymorphisms. Microarray data for single feature polymorphism (SFP) detection in recombinant inbred lines (RILs) can capitalize on the high level of replication available for each locus in the RIL population. It was suggested that the binding affinities from all of the RILs would form a multimodal distribution for a SFP. This motivated us to estimate the binding affinities from the robust multi-array analysis (RMA) method and formulate the SFP detection problem as a hypothesis testing problem, i.e. testing whether the underlying distribution of the estimated binding affinity (EBA) values of a probe is unimodal or multimodal.